Old Sins Long Shadows (48 page)

‘Lord Brockenshaw was a magistrate for several years. He also helped fund the female wing years ago.’

‘
Who is the third person?’ Janey asked

‘
It is the present governor, Mr Porter.’

‘
May I speak to the governor?  I would dearly like to speak with my husband.’

The warden, once adamant that visits were out of the question, now became hesitant after learning of her acquaintance with their main supporter
. Janey opened her reticule and pulled out the reference Lady Brockenshaw had given her some months before. Smiling she offered the letter to the warden for his perusal.

‘
Sir, I have here a reference as to my character from Lady Brockenshaw herself. I believe Mr Porter would accept that these circumstances are exceptional and special. Do you not agree?’

Moments later, after being introduced to the governor and enduring idle chit chat for politeness sake, Janey was being escorted into the bowels of the prison itself. As they made their way up the stone staircase, that spiralled like a snake from floor to floor, Janey could glimpse the four wings that spread out on each level. She had expected the sound of prisoners crying or shouting from their cells but inside the stone walls there was an eerie silence except for the sound of wheels turning in the distance.

‘
What’s that noise?’ she asked nervously.

‘
Prisoners on the treadmills,’ replied her escort, he gave no further explanation. Janey followed him up another flight of stairs,

‘
I don’t hear anyone talking?  Why is everyone so quiet?’ she asked in a whisper. It was unnerving to be in a building with up to four hundred people and not hear anyone at all.

‘
It’s the
silence system
. Prison is not meant to be a pleasant place. Maintaining silence means criminal habits can not be passed on. Prisoners are not allowed to speak to one another, if they do they are punished and their food rations reduced.’

‘
Prisoners are not allowed to speak for the whole of their sentence?’ asked Janey incredulously, the warden nodded, ‘but that could send a man mad,’ exclaimed Janey.

‘
It often does,’ agreed the warden, stepping into a wing on the third floor. ‘Here we are, ma’am, prisoner three hundred and thirty-two is on this wing.’

The wing was long, with a wide central corridor
. On either side were rows of single cells, no more than seven feet by twelve feet in size with one small window. The windows were situated so high and recessed so deep in the thick stone walls that no prisoner could see out and only a small amount of light filtered through its bars. The light from the windows, however, were the only light to enter the dark, foreboding wing unless a warden walked the floor, whereupon the light from their oil lamps cast eerie demon like shadows across the damp walls made of brick.

Janey tried to appear confident, matching her steps with the strides of the warden as they entered the wing but inside she was scared
. While their footfalls echoed within the prison wing faces came to the cell doors and peered out at them as they passed. She could not make out their faces in entirety as the barred windows in the doors were so small, but their eyes looked desperate as they drank in the vision of a woman carrying her baby. She heard sighs from some of the men as she passed and she looked nervously at her escort.

‘
For some you are their first sight of someone from the outside. Some have been here for years. Some will think they are seeing things. They cannot hurt you. Ignore them.’  Janey tried to do as he said but she found it difficult, especially when she saw some no older than Molly or David and others with tears in their eyes. Instinctively she held Hope tighter, protecting her from the horrors around her.

Her escort had stopped by a cell and motioned
to Janey that they had arrived. With some apprehension she looked through the door window that was no bigger than her outspread hand. At first she could see nothing in the darkness, but as her eyes became accustomed to the light she saw a black shadow of a man sitting on a wooden board that substituted for a bed, his elbows resting on his knees and his head bowed.

‘
Three hundred and thrity-two, you have a visitor,’ directed the warden and the man moved his head to look up. Within seconds Daniel’s face appeared at the window.

‘
You shouldn’t be here, woman, this is no place for you.’  His words were not unkindly said. Janey’s legs shook as she heard the familiar voice of her husband, seeing what she cradled in her arms he added, ‘and Hope too. She will be cold.’

‘
Hope is fine. She’s taking warmth from my body. I had to come. I had to see you.’

‘
The farm? The orders?’

‘
Don’t worry about them, Matt’s sisters are helping and Matt will come tomorrow. We must worry about you and help you get out.’

He shook his head in despair,
‘I don’t think I can survive being here in this living hell, Janey. If I am to go to trial and am sentenced you must sell the farm and forget about me.’

‘
Never! You are innocent. It’s one of the reasons I am here, to tell you I don’t believe what they say about you.’ Daniel rested his forehead against the bars.

‘
That means a lot to me but I know what the villagers say about me,’ he said sadly.

‘
Was anyone there that can be a witness for you?’

He shook his head,
‘No one was there. Edna arrived moments later and Doctor Barker a while after that but Zachariah was dead by then.’  He threaded a finger through the bar and Janey kissed it. A tear rolled down her cheek to wet his finger. ‘Oh Janey, don’t cry. It will be the undoing of me.’

‘
I’m sorry, I promised myself I would be strong for you but I hate to see you here.’

He withdrew his finger and put it to his lips to taste the salty tear.

‘If they should hang me tomorrow I would gladly go - knowing that I had these last few months with you as my wife.’

Janey clung to the bars,
‘Hush now,’ she said softly, ‘don’t talk of hanging. You will walk free again and we will fulfil our dreams together as we have planned.’

‘
I’ve never told you I love you, Janey Kellow, but I do.’ He rubbed his cheek along the softness of her fingers as he spoke, ‘From the first day I saw you I have loved you. Of all the bad things I have done in my life the one good thing was meeting you and taking you as my wife.’

‘
I will find someone who will speak for you before the magistrates.’

‘
There is no one.’

‘
There must be. I will find someone.’

‘
God only knows who will speak for me,’ she heard him take a deep breath as if summoning courage, ‘I want you to go now. I cannot bear to look upon you anymore. Go. Go!’  Daniel stepped back into the shadow and stood with his back to her. The warden took her arm.

‘
It’s time to leave, ma’am - before the prisoners become unsettled.’

‘I love you, Daniel,’ Janey whispered. She saw his shoulders brace before she turned and was escorted away by the warden.

As she stepped out of the prison entrance and back into the daylight, the bright sunshine hurt her eyes, making her squint. It was only when a faint breeze passed over her that she felt the wetness of her tears on her cheeks and her heart twisted with pain. Using her sleeve, she roughly wiped her face dry. Tears would not help Daniel, she thought. Only determination would free him and she had plenty of that for the both of them.

Chapter 20

Janey had not slept well but she did not let it affect her
. She had too much to do to worry about her lack of sleep. Matt arrived at the farm to help out and Janey gave him a list of orders that would need to be delivered first thing Monday morning when she was at the magistrate’s court. As she pinned her best hat on her head and gathered up her shawl she directed Matt, David and Molly to what needed to be done.

‘
Where are you going?’ asked Matt, surprised at how in control she appeared to be.

‘
I’m looking for character witnesses for Daniel’s defense. I thought of you, but as you are best friends I am concerned the magistrates will not give your evidence much weight.’

‘
So who are you going to ask?’ he asked. They both knew Daniel had not gone out of his way to seek friends from the village. Unknowingly, Daniel had given her an idea where to find such character witnesses and she was on her way to secure them. Satisfied Hope was fast asleep and in Molly’s care, she wrapped her shawl about her.

‘
I’m off to church to speak to God’s flock,’ she answered decisively, ‘I’m sure there will be a few willing to give up their time once I have had a word with them.’

Reverend Smith stood up before his congregation and opened the Bible. It was not the sermon he had planned to give this morning but Janey Kellow’s unexpected visit had made him change his plans. He had always had a soft spot for the young woman but she had gained his respect this morning as she relayed the events of the previous day to him. She had been the only person he knew who did not judge Daniel based on the rumours about him and he respected her for that. Even he, in his premarital discussion with her, had brought up the gossip about him, yet, as she very wisely stated, there was not a shred of evidence to support the accusation that Zachariah had been murdered. It grieved the vicar, that one of his parishioners had been separated from his family and now languished in Bodmin gaol. It grieved him all the more if he was innocent of the crime he had been charged with. This young woman, with immense dignity, had pointed out the folly of the situation and in doing so held up a magnifying glass on his own involvement without directly accusing him. By not eradicating the rumours years ago he had been complicit in them. She had not directly said those words but she did not need to. After all, as his father instilled in him, an act of omission is no form of defence.

He looked at the faces in front of him
, and with his voice echoing within the church stone walls, he began to read from James chapter three, verses one to ten.

‘
Taming of tongues…,’ he roared, looking about him wildly, and then he began to read with a passion he had not felt in many years. He had a message he wanted his congregation to hear and the message was long overdue. The message could not be mistaken, it condemned idle gossip, which he knew many relished, and it warned of the dangers and hurt it could inflict.

A
s the vicar read he noticed a few members of his congregation wiggling uneasily in their seats and their discomfort fuelled his passion all the more. He thumped the Bible, making them jump.        

‘
The tongue is like fire,’ he continued as perspiration formed on his forehead. Embarrassed someone coughed, confirming to the vicar the thoughts of the congregation. Gossip was the glue that developed friendships within the community. Not necessary with malicious intent, it brought communities together and gave reason for contact. Good news was spread, as was bad, and often the focus of the gossip and how it affected them was forgotten. There lay the guilt.

‘
The tongue must be tamed, or it will become unruly, evil and as deadly as any poison!’  Reverend Smith took off his glasses and looked at the faces below him. Not one could meet his gaze. ‘We have all been guilty of partaking in idle gossip. Often it is harmless. Often it is to spread good news.’ He rested his glasses carefully on the Bible before him, ‘But there are times it has been started with malice in mind and sometimes what started as an untruth becomes truth along the way. The tongue is a deadly weapon, it can hurt as surely as any knife. It can destroy a reputation as surely as any deed. To wound, to destroy our fellow man in such a way is a sin. Yet all of us here have been guilty to one in our parish and we must right the sin we have revelled in for the past few years.’

The congregation turned as Janey stood up and made her way to the front of the congregation. In the past she would not have had the courage to address so ma
ny people but the woman that stood before them now was not the one that arrived at Bosvenna Estate two years before. Since then she had addressed her fellow servants, and taken charge of running the manor, during a scarlet fever outbreak. Facing her fellow parishioners to help secure her husband’s release was no longer daunting to her.